Wax and cellulose ester composition



April 18, 193.9.

s. QUISLING WAX AND CELLULOSE ESTER COMPOSITION 1 Filed Feb. 8, 1935 5) M IZI'INVENTQRI ATTORNEY. 3 2

Patented A r. 18, 1939 r UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,154,822 wax AND CELLULOSE ESTER coMPosmoN Sverre Quisling, Madison, Wla Application February a, 1935, Serial at. 5,019

- 5 Claims: (01. 167-88) This invention relates to wax and cellulose ester compositions and is herein described in some detail as embodied in material for coloring human hair. c

In the past, dyes have beenfused for coloring human hair, but the most successful dyes ,from an artistic point of view have been lead or silver or mercury dyes, many of which are poisonous, and all of which, and also the aniline dyes used, are toxic to some people. Moreover, the hair to which the dyes have been applied usually needed long subsequent drying, often as much as six hours, and usually required the services of an expert, if satisfactory results were to be obtained.

According to one form of the present inven-' tion, these and other difficulties are overcome, and the hair is coated with an almost imperceptlble covering which includes microscopic or almost microscopic particles of pigment in a transparent coating thus giving an efiectsimilar to the natural color of the hair which varies slightly on a given head.

The co oring matter of the present invention has been found -to be useful for very rapid application when applied to a comb, the hair is colored by combing with the comb carrying the coloring matter, although a superior efi ect is often obtained by applying the coating with a brush which has been moistened with the coloring matter.

. The coloring matter may be molded on orotherwise fixed to the comb and softened .by

heating or by treating with a few drops of a softening fluid, usually a volatile organic solvent, as desired, or the coloring matter may be provided in paste form in admixture with the softener, as in a collapsible tube and squeezed out on to the comb asdesired for use, provided it is used fairly promptly or is softened before use. The coloring matter has also been most successfully applied to the hair by means of a small'brush, such as a tooth brush. For the-latter purpose, it has been found convenient to provide discs of the solid coloring matter cast into shallow stamped metal plates, so that a little of the softening fluid may be. poured on to a plate, a little of the softened coloring matter gathered on the bristles of the brush and brushed into the hair.

For some of these purposes the coloring matter may consist of a wax carrying a pigment. The

best wax seems to be Japan wax carrying ceresine or beeswax mixed with ceresine. The pigment carried in the wax may be a mineral or vegetable or synthetic organic pigment su'ch as a dye. The most satisfactory softener seems to be acetone mixed with some so-called organic solvent to modify its volatility.

5 It has been found that black hair can be evenly colored a beautiful brown or even white, and the coloring can be removed completely in a few minutes if desired, as for example by actors in a theatre.

, 10- Cellulose esters, such as cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate have also been found to be useful as a body material adapted to carry the coloring material. A

In the use of a cellulose ester, the cellulose 15 ester may be dissolved inacetone carrying a sali-' cylate or a benzoate. An aqueous, solution of acetone and an organic salt may then be added to the cellulose ester solution without precipitating'a properly prepared solution. The cellulose 2 ester solution may be mixed with wax solution, if desired, especially with a wax solution carrying petroleum benzine. 1

- The solution of cellulose ester may yield valuable products, as will appear below, serving as hair coloring matter.

Other features and advantages will herein after appear. Y

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary view of a comb car- 30 rying hair coloring wax. v

- Figure 2 is a sectional view of the same on the line 2-2. q I

Figure 3 is a view of a modified comb.

I, To prepare a black coloring material for the 35 hair, ceresine' and beeswax v this mixture was added a.proportion of carbon v were melted and to black, and the batch thoroughly mixed. The re-' sulting molten black wax was poured out in a thin layer on a metal plate having a slightly de- 40 pressed flat center. I

When cool the surface of the mixture was moistened with acetone to which had been added an activating agent such as benzine or gasoline or isopropylalcohol. Some of the softened and the brush drawn through the hair. This treatment left the hair glossy and black and it had the appearance of naturally black hair. It

was found that the wax would carry upwards of 5 manently straightened at will by combing with 55 instead 01' 25 black wax was gathered on the bristles of the brush 5 the desired curl, a more permanent curl is obtained than by usual water-waves. Curly hair may be straightened by the same procedure.

It was found that other wax-like substances such as ordinary parafllne wax carrying the blacl: or tallow carrying it, or ceresine carrying it, or Japan wax carrying it, and mixtures 0! these were useful to the same ends. The tallow was wax-like enough to be useful though not equal to .beeswax. For merely straightening or curling hair, un-

- colored wax or wax like substances may be used. Other useful coloring materials were white zinc oxide, red and brown oxide or iron. indigo, Congo 7 red, the hello red BMTA of General Dyestuffs Corporation, their hansa yellow Gaw, their per- 'manent orange G. E., their ultramarine. All of these were useful when carried in several 01' the waxes, and most of them were useful when carried in cellulose esters solutions.

Itwas found possible to dissolve the pigmentbearing wax in so little; acetone, or to dissolve wax in so little acetone mixed with other solvents and add a pigment so that the resulting-paste was easily expelled from a collapsible tube and delivered ina roll on a comb ,and combed into the hair with similar results.

The best solvent for the wax was hexyl alcohol, but owing to its strong odor it wasusually diluted with acetone. Isopropyl alcohol was almost equally good. The methyl ether of ethyl ene glycol was also very satisfactory.

The wax was easily removed by moistening the hair with water carrying about 10% to 25% of sodium or alkali metal salicylate and 10% of al- 0 cohol, and then washing as usual, either with soap and water or under a water shower. Instead of the salicylate it was possibleto substitute other organic salts such as an oxalate, or citrate, or benzoate.

. Isopropyl alcohol was the best alcohol and the addition of a'small amount of acetone was found useful in the mixture.-

One very satisfactory means-of applying the wax to hair was found to be to fasten a layer of the wax along the teeth of a comb, as shown in the drawing. The comb may be an ordinary type of comb, such as metal or hard rubber comb, in which teeth i0 project from the ordinary back ii. The comb carries a pressed-in bar of wax i2 which fills the space between the teeth for a fraction of their length. The waxmay stand out above the surface of the comb so that the ,hair passing through the comb may have a fairly 'longltravel over the wax. The wax I! may be well down toward the points of the teeth as shown in Figure 1, or may lie at i3, against the base of the teeth as shown in Figure 3.

The comb of Figure 1 is shown as provided .with the usual unwaxed flne teeth II as' well as the coarse teeth II, and the comb of Figure 3 is shown with a handle i5.

Similar results were obtained by dissolving cellulose ester, such as nitro cellulose or acetyl cellulose in an acetone solution of alkali-metal or 7 sodium salicylate or, not quite so good, of sodium benzoate or citrate or oxalate. The amount of the sodium salt used may vary from ten percent or less to twenty-five percent or more, depending on thekind of solution desired. Acetyl cellu- 75 lose equal to about one-fourth of the volume of the solution was used. A comb carrying a ribbon of this slightly viscous mixture or solution, after the mixture or solution had been colored, proved satisfactory. The mixture or solution was colored with a black or other pigment or 5 -any of several water-soluble aniline dyes. Thus or combed with a strong solution of sodium 'sali- 20 cylate or the other salts named above, or even with water.

It was found possible to make'a cellulose ester glove on" the hand by dipping the hand in the solution of cellulose ester in acetonecarrying 25 the salicylate and water. The glove was made aseptic by previously adding guiacol to the solution. Such a solution had a phenol coeificient of 12 to 14 compared to a 5% solution of phenol the strongest that the average human skin can 30 stand.

The glove on the hand was removed by washing with hot water, coming ofi rather hard if no more than five or ten percent of the salicylate had been added to the acetone solution. The .35 same solution was usable to paint an aseptic covering on a patient before a surgical operation,- one easily removed after the operation.

' Cellulose nitrate or acetate was dissolved in acetone, or other solvent, such as l, 4, diethylene 40 oxide, monoethyl ether; of ethylene glycol, or methyl isobutyl lreton'e, and to this was added sodium oxalate carried in a mixture of water and acetone, forming a sticlq milky solution which was precipitated further by the addition of fur- 45 ther quantities of water-acetone-sodium oxalate solution. Slow addition of further quantities of water-acetone-sodium oxalate solution resulted in the formation of a precipitate which could be drawn into an elastic, strong, transparent so thread. The elasticity. strength and transparency of the threads drawn from such precipitates decreased with an increase in the rate of addition of water-acetone-sodium oxalate solu-- tion. v

1 dissolved to. make a 10% to 25% solution in acetone. About one-fourth volume of cellulose acetate mixture was mixed with .the solution of the sodium salt and acetone; The final mixture 60 may contain 10% to 25% water.

Useful, but not as good results were obtained when bicarbonate of soda was substituted for the oxalate, or sodium malate was substituted. The compound of soda with'asparagine was also use- 65 ful.

Better results were obtained by substituting .sodium salicylate, and nearly as good, by substituting sodium citrate, or sodium acetate.

Alkali metal salts other than sodium may be used. The glove described above may be made from the solutions carrying such salts.

'Sodium salicylate carried in'w'ater and acetone to which a small quantity of gulacol was added made an. excellent solvent for cellulose acetate,

/ 2,154,882 yielding on addition of water, an easily workableplastic which rose to the surface of the liquid and floated thereon. This plastic mass could bee'asily drawn into threads. The guiacol increased the proportion of water which could be safely added without the formation ofa precipitate. These and other plastics were easily dyed with several aniline 'dyes.

It was found possible to add more water to the acetone solution it an aromatic hydroxy compound such as guiacol was first added. It was also frequently possible to dissolve more ester in a solution in acetone to which had been added a solution of an organic salt in water and acetone. Cresols, 'and creosol to a less extent, and phenol were also useful.

Threads of mixed esters may be obtained by dissolving the esters in the same solvent and pro I ceeding as described above.

The nitrocellulose used was that tri-nitro cellulose sold for use as an adhesive and was made'by the du Pont Company.

, Zinc oxide carried in an equal weight of wax can be manipulated to give varying eil'ects in coloring hair. On very black hair a heavy coat gives a, platinum blonde. By adding more solventin applying a thin coat of the wax carrying- Ithezinc oxide, a beautiful eilect oi. prematurely grey hair can beobtained.

A mixture of zinc oxide with one-third as much hansa yellow in the wax gives a yellow blonde.

Zinc oxidehas also proved us'ei'ul in making light- .er colors which seemed too dark.

' Having thus described certain embodiments of the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A coating composition for use on skin and hair which, whendry will not come oil with water atx'ro'om temperature but is easily removed with heated water, said composition in solution including cellulose acetate, an organic cellulose ester solvent with from to 25 percent water and 7.5 to 18 percent salt selected from the group consisting of sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, sodium malate, sodium oxalate, sodium benzoate and sodium salicylate. I

2. A coating composition for use on skin and hair which when dry will not come on with water at room temperature but is easily removed with heated water, said composition in solution including cellulose acetate, a wax, an organic cellulose ester solvent, from 10 to 25 percent water, and from 7.5 to 18 percent of at least one salt selected from the group consisting of sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, sodium malate, sodium oxalate, sodium benzoate and sodium salicylate.

' 3. A coating composition for use on skin and hair which when dry will not come oil with water at room temperature but is easily removed ing cellulose acetate, an organic cellulose ester solvent, and from 10 to 25 percent water, and from 7.5 to 18percent sodium bicarbonate.

5. A coating composition for use on skin and hair which when dry will not come '01! with water at room temperature but is easily removed with heated water, said composition in solution ineluding cellulose acetate, a cellulose ester solvent, and from 10 to 25 percent water, 18 percent sodium benaoate.

BVEBRE QUIBLING.

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